Caruso didn’t confine himself to music-realated subjects; here is his rendering of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, with whom he was acquainted:

Roosevelt served the superstitious Caruso as a good-luck charm on a day of disaster.

In 1906, Caruso was performing Carmen in San Francisco when the great earthquake and fire destroyed the city. Caruso was found walking the streets, disoriented and weeping, clutching a signed photograph of the President to his chest. He ran into the actor John Barrymore, fresh from a brothel, who persuaded the tenor to sing to calm the panicked crowds.

Caruso’s talent for caricature extended to sculpture, as seen in this bust of himself as a ‘laughing Buddha’, which he presented to Toscanini:

He was not above using his fame to swing lucrative endorsement deals, as we can see from the following advertisement for Pianola– illustrated by the singer:

But he also donated his talents for good causes: below, Caruso mans a quick-sketch booth for charity, drawing Mrs Albert Gallatin.

He published several books of his caricatures and cartoons; this one dates from 1914. I like the cover drawing below best of all his self-portraits:

These ‘transformation’ drawings show a delightful playfulness:

Enrico Caruso’s cartoons all evince a spirit of light mockery without a hint of meanness; seeing them, I can believe that the great tenor would have made excellent company!

Mike, Russ, thanks.
Russ, I knew about Reagan’s cartooning talents; I remember after the Hinckley attempt on his life he sent a very adroit self-caricature from his hospital bed to the press.
Here’s a page of his doodles made during a meeting with Margaret Thatcher:http://craphound.com/images/President_doodles.jpg
I’m fascinated by the number of amateur and professional cartoonists famous for other things: Benjamin Franklin, William Makepeace Thackeray,Martin Landau, Federico Fellini, John Updike, G.K. Chesterton (who was magnificently gifted), Lewis Carroll,Flannery O’Connor,Gary Cooper, Joan Baez, Joe Hill (the labor organiser, not the novelist)…the list goes on and on!

In general I am interested in the ‘fungibility’ of creativity in talented persons. The great painter Ingres was one of the finest violin players of his time. The philosopher Wittgenstein was also a brilliant engineer, with several pioneering inventions patented by him; likewise the author and philosopher Blaise Pascal, who invented the barometer, the adding machine, and the omnibus!